The spine carries all the weight of a person's body and head, and the constant pressure from this weight and bending, stretching, and rotating movements is what usually leads to many spinal diseases.
Lumbar spine is the most flexible segment of the movable part of the vertebral column. As a result of the bending backwards as well as the rotating movements, lumbar vertebrate changes normal structure and creates many health problems.
Among those, disc herniation and spondylolisthesis are popular ones. Flat-back syndrome and lumbar kyphosis also happen, but at a lower rate. Approximately 90% of disc herniations occur toward the bottom of the spine at L4-L5 or L5-S1, which cause pain in the L5 nerve or S1 nerve, respectively. A herniation in this area puts direct pressure on the nerve, which causes lumbar radiculopathy. Similar symptoms are observed when spondylolisthesis occurs.
Similar to lumbar spine, thoracic spine also faces degeneration problem, which leads to disc herniation and spondylolisthesis. However, thoracic spine faces kyphosis much more often.
Several attempts have been made to cure the diseases of lumbar and thoracic spine, some of which were artificial disc replacement, back bracing, therapeutic drugs, and chiropractic care. Artificial disc replacement is used when disc herniation happens; however, this method is not for everyone, especially not for those with osteoporosis, joint disease, and allergy to stainless steel. In addition, artificial disc replacement requires a discectomy, which may lead to other complications such as infection, excessive bleeding, and damages to nerves. A back brace may be used to support the spine in the case of spondylolisthesis, however, the brace is not able to push the vertebra back to its normal position. Drugs such as acetaminophen and NSAIDs can reduce pain; unfortunately, they are only temporary. In addition to the drugs' limited ability of treat spine diseases, they cause liver and kidney damage, gastrointestinal bleeding, and ulcers. Chiropractic care seems to be a safer option of the three treatments. Chiropractors use spinal effective manipulation techniques, such as instrument-assisted manipulation, to treat patients. However, in the process of treatments, there is a risk of putting excessive forces on the patient's spine that may lead to damaging it. On the other hand, if the chiropractors treat the diseases with safer thus much less intensive forces, the treatment period is normally lengthy. The treatment period is even prolonged given the fact that patients can only spend one to two hours a day with chiropractors. To treat the diseases safely and to shorten the treatment period, it becomes necessary to have a device that can replicate the safe forces applied by the chiropractors, and that is handy enough for patients to use it whenever needed in order to increase the treatment time each day, thus to shorten the treatment period.
There are many devices have been invented to provide support to lumbar and thoracic spine. However, most of them help prevent spine diseases but do not treat the diseases. U.S. Pat. No. 5,863,095 shows a lobed resilient lumbar pillow to support the lower back of a person. U.S. Pat. No. 5,551,752 shows a cushion for supporting the lumbar area of the back of a person. U.S. Pat. No. 6,823,549 shows a cushion for prevention and treatment of decubitus ulcers but not spine diseases. U.S. Pat. No. 4,502,170 provides a method for improving posture and relieving back pain but not treat spine diseases.
Given that, the present device has been invented to treat, not only to prevent, but also to be used on a daily basis for treatment of lumbar spine diseases including lumbar and thoracic disc herniation, spondylolisthesis, and thoracic kyphosis.